21 day supported, camping

[Mariona]

Im looking for a tour company that offers support for 21 days Lejog. I cant manage to carry all the luggage so I cant go unsupported. I would like to camp as I enjoy it and it should cost less. If I cant cut the costs to below £3000 I cant do it at all but have wanted to do it for years .Any ideas?

[Paulatic]

Why have you more luggage than you can carry on a bike?

[rareposter]

Any ideas?

Do you want a fully supported tour - guiding, food / accommodation all arranged, support vehicle(s) etc or do you just want a luggage transfer service? Cos they're quite different things...

Fully guided, the only people I know who do longer than 2 weeks are Saddle Skedaddle

But because it's 3 weeks, it's much more expensive. And because it's fully supported, you're on their timeframe and their accommodation bookings.

The other possibility is you sort out your route, your accommodation and so on and then book a taxi service (or similar) to transfer your kit each day but that does run into more logisitical challenges.

[gbnz]

Im looking for a tour company that offers support for 21 days Lejog. I cant manage to carry all the luggage so I cant go unsupported. I would like to camp as I enjoy it and it should cost less. If I cant cut the costs to below £3000 I cant do it at all but have wanted to do it for years .Any ideas?

Buy a decent bivvie bag, superlight summer sleeping bag, or simply take a sleeping bag liner at this time of year.

A few hundred grams weight of a toothbrush, bar of soap et al, shouldn't be prohibitive. Simply intersperse with an occasional last minute night at a hotel/pub on the way .............in the modern retail world, it's perfectly possible to buy a new pair of socks et al, en route (Nb. Buy a pack of 10 for £4, retain a couple of pairs, post the others home)

Could even drop a stone in weight over the new 2-3 weeks, would offset the weight of the above

[roubaixtuesday]

I'd be pretty surprised if such a thing is marketed, or at your price point.

Support is expensive, and numbers of people who both want a supported ride *and* a fairly long one *and* want to camp I'd guess could be very small indeed.

Perhaps something like arranging a few nights in accommodation and posting/ returning some kit from there might be the nearest you're likely to get. If mechanics is a concern, getting rescue assistance (eg ETA) and pre booking a service mid trip?

[RickH]

Bike Adventures do a variety of lejog trips from 10 to 26 days (link). Up to 20 days is within your budget & staying in hotels/B&Bs. They used to have a camping option but I don't think they do anymore. I did their 15 day trip in 2009 & it was well organised but you were free to go "off-piste" if you wanted - I didn't on that trip but I did several others where I diverted off the route intentionally for one reason or another on one day.

[PH]

Find someone young, fit and poor and offer them a free trip in return for towing a trailer. It's an offer I'd have jumped at twenty years ago.

[rareposter]

Find someone young, fit and poor and offer them a free trip in return for towing a trailer.

+1 for this, even some kind of a "man with a van" type arrangement.
A friend of mine cycled it with her parents supporting in a camper van. She'd spend all day on the road, meanwhile her parents did some sightseeing, tourist stuff and they'd be at that night's campsite all set up ready for her to arrive. They all had a great time!

Gives you the freedom and leeway to do your own thing, plot your own route, stay where you want but the safety blanket of backup and support plus it means you can devolve a lot of the logistics to them. Having someone take the tent down while you just get on your way, pitch it ready for you at the next campsite etc saves a huge amount of effort on your part!

[axel_knutt]

When I was touring, my safety blanket was avoiding committing to booking accommodation in advance with fixed daily mileages, that bothered me a lot more than carrying luggage. £140 a day sounds an eyewatering sum, even accounting for inflation since I last toured by hostel in 2011.

[PH]

Find someone young, fit and poor and offer them a free trip in return for towing a trailer.

+1 for this, even some kind of a "man with a van" type arrangement.

Just for clarity, I was thinking of a bike trailer!
I did this for someone a few years ago who's ambition was from the Midlands to London, worked out quite well, with the trailer going some way to evening out our abilities.

[pjclinch]

Why have you more luggage than you can carry on a bike?

There is an important distinction between "can do" and "will surely have fun for 3 weeks doing so".

Similarly, "just sleep rough in roadside pipes like Jenny Graham to save on luggage" is all very well for snipping off grams but not necessarily the OP's idea of a Good Time. I'm certainly not as hard as Jenny, maybe the OP isn't either...

Pete.

[Bmblbzzz]

And there aren't that many roadside pipes lying around just when you need them...

[Ron]

Any ideas?

Review your luggage with a view to discarding some of it.
I'm assuming you have four panniers and perhaps a bar bag this should provide ample luggage space for a 21 day tour, unless you have some special needs. I took along a small back pack in which I carried valuables and lashed that on to the rear luggage rack when cycling but wore it on my back when going in to cafes, shops etc.
This arrangement proved adequate for camping tours of two months and more.

[Tigerbiten]

I used a large carry freedom trailer when on long tour because my camping kit took up more volume than I could easily fit in my paniers. The weight was never the problem, it was how well I could pack things down with only one arm was.
The weight of the trailer slowed me down by around 2mph and the weight of my kit slowed me down by another 2 mph. This made my average speeds around 6mph if very lumpy, 8mph if just rolling hills and 10mph if pancake flat.
I used to plan on 6-8 hour days covering 40-60 miles. As long as I was fit enough to get up the hills, gearing a bike right down will help, covering 1k miles in 3 week was easy.

But it will be even easier if someone else pulls the trailer .....

[ymfb]

£3,000 / 21 =£142.86 ( wow that did the Calc for me)

You could do B & B/pub/hotel and be in budget. You would only need a modest amount of clothing.

It is exactly what we are planning for 2026, as there are three of us we considered paying someone to drive as £4K per person it would be cheaper.

I know companies such as Skedaddle are booking your digs, supplying the route and breakdown but you still need to get to and from the ends.